Work Experience Classification Question

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Hey all,

3rd time MD applicant here - I worked in healthcare IT for 5 years during college, and was wondering about how I should classify my IT career after having entered it as "Paid Employment - Clinical" last cycle. My difficulty in deciding is based on that, despite the day-to-day being decidedly nonclinical and more like a typical corporate IT job, a large portion (totaling to about 300-400 hours) of my responsibilities involved being on site at hospitals during certain times, within "smelling distance" of patients. This was essentially ensuring that upgrades/installations of our EMR were going smoothly and troubleshooting at the elbow of users (clinicians) whenever problems would arise. Despite accumulating to a large amount of hours within a pretty objectively clinical setting, I feel that listing the work experience as wholly clinical might be scoffed at by adcoms. If I don't count this as clinical experience, I have virtually no other "listed" clinical experience other than shadowing and I feel my app is DOA.

At the same time, my healthcare IT career is what really solidified my desire to pursue medicine. Topping out in scope of my job and wanting a career that furnishes a more direct and immediate aid to patients is the core of my PS, and I think I get that point across well enough. However, seeing the increasingly obscene amount of time fellow applicants are spending scribing and working in EMS (respect!) makes me extremely nervous about my prospects this cycle. I am currently finishing an SMP, which has monopolized my time and made it hard for me to get in any more clinical hours prior to AMCAS submission. Should I press forward or would I be wasting another application cycle? I'd love to be an attending before I'm 40, but recognize that I will have to wait and strengthen my EC's if my app is too weak.

Other background in case it helps:
1st cycle: Only applied to 2 schools - had no idea what I was doing: 2R
2nd cycle: Applied broadly/in line with my stats to 32 schools: 1 II 1 R
Undergrad cGPA: 3.62
Major Red Flag: Downward trending GPA (death of my grandmother, with whom I was close, senior year of college)
SMP GPA: 3.85
MCAT: 513 (will expire after this cycle)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help with this.

Your IT work in college was NOT clinical.
You need at least 100 hours of clinical engagement either as a volunteer or in the role of an employee who is tasked with patient care. Applying without those hours is a waste of your time and money.

Retake the MCAT. Given your SMP you should score even better than you did last time.
Get some volunteer or paid employment in a patient facing role.
Apply in 2023.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top